Thread: Prayer leads to work disputes for immigrants

Prayer leads to work disputes for immigrants

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY

Requests by Muslims to pray at work have led to clashes with employers who say they cannot accommodate the strictly scheduled prayers.
The conflicts raise questions about religious rights on the job. Muslims say they are being discriminated against and are taking their complaints to the courts and the federal government. Employers say the time out for prayer can burden other workers and disrupt operations.

TABLE: Religious discrimination in the workplace

Disputes boiled over at two JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in September during the holy month of Ramadan.

In Grand Island, Neb., Muslim workers, most of them Somali immigrants, wanted their regular break to coincide with the sunset prayer and the end of the daily Ramadan fast. After they walked out, managers agreed to move the break time.

When non-Muslim workers protested what they called preferential treatment, the plant returned to its original schedule. On Sept. 19, 76 workers — most of them Muslims — were fired because they left work without authorization to pray or protest, JBS Swift says.

In Greeley, Colo., 96 workers were fired under similar circumstances, the firm says. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has different figures: 81 in Grand Island and 108 in Greeley.

"They shouldn't be forced to choose between their job and their religion," says Rima Kapitan, an attorney who represents Muslim workers in Grand Island.

She is filing federal and state discrimination complaints. Denver attorney Diane King, who represents about 70 of the Greeley workers, says she plans to file complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Last year, 2,880 complaints of religious discrimination were filed with the EEOC, which enforces federal employment discrimination laws. Muslims filed 607 of them, more than double the annual number a decade ago. The agency had 82,792 complaints of workplace discrimination of all kinds in 2007.

The Muslim complaints allege violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers must make a "reasonable" attempt to accommodate religious practices "unless doing so would pose an undue hardship," the EEOC says. "Undue hardship" means the accommodation would pose more than a minimal cost or burden to the employer, the commission says.

Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal organization, says his group has represented Christians and Jews who wanted Saturdays or Sundays off to worship.

He says some requests by Muslims for prayer time may be unreasonable because of the frequency. Muslims pray five times a day at specific times, which shift over the course of the year based on the sun's position. Each prayer takes five to 10 minutes.

"The problem with the Muslim prayer request is that it's not one day or annual," Staver says. "It's every day and multiple times."

The EEOC helped Gold'n Plump reach a preliminary settlement with some workers at its poultry processing plants in Cold Spring, Minn., and Arcadia, Wis. The workers, most of them Somali immigrants, say they were disciplined or fired for praying. The settlement is pending court approval.

Company spokeswoman Lexann Pryd-Kakuk says Gold'n Plump has agreed to give all employees, not just Muslims, two 10-minute breaks instead of one 15-minute break. The additional break "roughly coincides with prayer times," she says.

There has been no resolution at a Celestica electronics plant in Arden Hills, Minn., where 22 Ethiopian and Somali immigrants filed a lawsuit saying they were disciplined or fired for leaving the production line to pray.

"The company had a prayer room for them to use, but stopped letting them use it," attorney Jim Kaster says.

In a statement, Celestica called the allegations "totally without merit." The company "has made considerable efforts to ensure that the religious needs of all our employees are met," it says.

In Greeley and Grand Island, JBS Swift officials say workers who walked off the job "put an additional burden on those employees still working on the production line," according to a written statement.

"We work closely with all employees and union representation to accommodate religious practices in a reasonable, safe and fair manner," the statement says.

Abdi Mohamed, 28, came to the USA as a refugee from Somalia a year ago. For most of his eight months at the Grand Island plant, his boss let him slip away for seven minutes at sunset to pray in the locker room, allowing him to balance his job cutting beef with a tenet of Islam.

"Anytime I'm not (praying), I'm damaging my relationship with God," he says through a translator.

Mohamed, who lost his job Sept. 19, says he plans to file a discrimination complaint. "We are refugees to this country," he says, "and now we are made to be refugees within America."

WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION

Muslim claims of religious discrimination at work peaked in the year after the 9/11 attacks.

Source: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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I say, send them all home where every body worships the same way they do. Why should we have to cater to them. I thought that it was suppose to be that a few couldn't impose their ways to the detrement of the majority. This country is beginning to be a joke. Where are our standards. When I had a job, the stor was open on Sunday. I asked, for religious reason, to have sundays off. I was told that if I needed sunday's off, I could find employment elsewhere.

Years ago I did auditing for Builders Emporium....If I wasn't there on Sunday morning...the cashiers didn't get their money drawers....and therefor the store could not operate without cashiers....I worked Sunday mornings....work or lose your job......sorry...I have no sympathy

The Somalis that lost their jobs have been heading to my town. Here is a related story that just ran in the local paper:

Tyson strives for equality
By:Kevin Hervert 10/07/2008

LEXINGTON - Somalis have arrived in the U.S. directly from refugee camps, and have come to the Midwest in secondary migrations, drawn by an attractive job market and refugee service agencies, such as the Lexington Somali Community Center.

These people have avoided certain death to try and make a better life for themselves and their families. Since 1991 about 3.25 million people have died or been displaced trying to escape the civil war that ravages their country.

They have been drawn by the lure of meat processing plants, and other industries that do not require advanced English language skills, such as Tyson Fresh Foods, Inc.

Ismail Ibrahim, treasurer of the Somali Community Center in Lexington, and an interpreter at Tyson said that since the walkouts and firings at the JBS Swift & Co. plants in Grand Island and Greeley, Colo., hundreds of Muslim workers, mostly Somalis who walked off the job alleging they weren't being allowed to pray and break their daily fast, have traveled to Lexington to apply at Tyson.

"Tyson respects our race and religion," said Ibrahim.

He said that about 150 people from Swift in Grand Island who have traveled here to apply at the Lexington Tyson plant, are awaiting interviews, and more are on their way.

Ali Shire, who was fired during the Grand Island dispute, said that his religious beliefs in God come first, then money, and not the other way around.

Freedom of religion

Though Lexington's Muslim population does not have an Imam, who is the traditional prayer leader of a mosque, they do have leaders of the Muslim faith.

The majority of the Muslim workers at Tyson take these leaders direction during prayer time, according to Tyson's Lexington human resource manager Suzann Reynolds.

There are five obligatory prayers in a day, called "Salats" that must all be offered at or during their proper times, and Muslims are to make a serious effort to pray each prayer.

Tyson, however, does not just make accommodations for Muslims. Tyson has chaplains who practice non-denominational spiritual guidance.

"They're not there to peddle their religion," Reynolds said. "There are appreciative of any sort of religion, and we have two multi-faith rooms, one for males and one for females, and they are open to absolutely anybody."

In these rooms individuals of any religion can pray at the same time according to Reynolds.

Gary Michaelson, public relations representative for all of Tyson Foods, Inc., said in an email statement to the Clipper-Herald that, "As part of our legally-required responsibility to provide religious accommodation, we have set aside an area of the Lexington plant for prayer. We strive to reasonably accommodate our Team Members' religious beliefs and practices, as required by the law.

"In addition, one of Tyson's Core Values is to be a faith friendly company. We use multiple approaches to enhance our communications surrounding religious accommodation to include our local human resources staff, our diversity staff and our chaplaincy program."

Ibrahim says that right now Muslims are coming every day from other factories in other towns. He says that this is because of the faith-based accommodations Tyson makes.

"Tyson is the best company that respects our religion," said Ibrahim. "They're faith friendly, and we appreciate that."

The Somali Community Center welcomes individuals and families, and helps them obtain basic needs such as shelter, food, medicine and sometimes finance, as well as their immigrant status if needed.

It is a non-profit organization dedicated to meeting the needs of those in Lexington and the surrounding community.

In 2005, Ibrahim said there were nine Somali families living in Lexington. He now estimates there are between 600 and 1,000 Somalis living in Lexington, with more coming.

Unity and Understanding

According to the mission statement of the Somali Community Center, it is their desire to build unity with all areas and backgrounds, and also to provide a place where all people, whether they are families, men, women or children will know that they will be heard and treated with care and compassion.

It goes on to say that it is their desire to help better understand city government and policies which will build and strengthen relationships with those who have lived in Lexington all of their lives.

Through his interpreter, Ibrahim, President/Chairman Abdullahi Mohamed's message to the Lexington community is that the Somali community outside of Lexington are having a lot of problems.

He said that they have opened the community center to help Somalis who are in need right now. He estimates that there are around 200 Somalis from Greeley, Colo., as well as over 150 from Grand Island, who are trying to move to Lexington now who are not employed anywhere.

Mohamed said that there are around 200 people in Lexington right now who are homeless and are staying with others who have been helping the community center with the influx of Somalis. In some cases, he explained, there are more than 10 people in one room.

Mohamed said that Lexington's Tyson human resources manager has been "extremely helpful" and that he is optimistic that most will find jobs here in Lexington, but transition will be tough.

According to Ibrahim and Mohamed the Somali community in Lexington has not experienced the prejudices that others have seen in other parts of the country, and that so far the community has been very welcoming.

In addition to welcoming Somalis to the community with jobs and religious accommodations, the community has donated some office furniture to the Somali Community Center for use in their day-to-day business helping refugees, but more is needed.

Mohamed says that anyone interested in donating supplies may drop them off at the Somali Community Center at 619 N. Washington, Lexington, NE 68850.

The refugees who are still in the pursuit of happiness could greatly use the help.

http://www.lexch.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 8509&rfi=6